Tag: Swiftkey 3

SwiftKey users in India, here is some good news for you. Yesterday, a new update was rolled out to SwiftKey that brought with it support for 9 new languages, a new theme and some bug-fixes.

The list of nine new supported languages include Hindi and Hinglish, along with Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Irish, Macedonian, Spanish (Latin America), and Tagalog. Adding support for Hindi and Hinglish languages has been one of the most requested feature in SwiftKey’s user voice, so it is nice to finally see the developers adding support for these languages.

If you still don’t own SwiftKey, now might just be the time to do so. With this update, and to celebrate the holiday season, the developers have reduced the price of SwiftKey from its usual $1.99 to only $0.99 for the phone as well as the tablet version. With SwiftKey Flow coming as an upgrade to Swiftkey 3 sometime in the future, it might just be a good option to buy the app now at its reduced price.

Back in October, we blogged about a new Android keyboard called SwiftKey Flow. Android already has several dozen keyboards, so a new keyboard is hardly newsworthy. However, SwiftKey Flow had us salivating, simply because of the folks behind it. SwiftKey’s other keyboard – SwiftKey X, has the best prediction engine in the market. Once it gets used to your typing style, it often manages to effortlessly predict word after word. In spite this, SwiftKey never managed to cement its position as the default keyboard on my phone. The sole reason for that is its lack of support for gesture typing. Gesture typing, pioneered by Swype, is the best way to type on touchscreen mobile devices. It’s not only a lot faster, but it also takes a lot less effort, and requires only one hand.

SwiftKey Flow promises the best of both worlds. It boasts of SwiftKey’s renowned prediction engine, and supports gesture typing. After teasing us for months, SwiftKey announced the open beta of Flow a short while back. Like the original SwiftKey, the new Flow keyboard also can scan your messages, Facebook and Twitter posts, and Gmail conversations to learn your typing pattern and build up its dictionary. Flow also keeps on learning as you type. So, the longer you use, the better it gets. The Flow is meant for both tap-typing and gesture-typing. While gesture-typing is identical to Swype, it doesn’t seem to support all the bells and whistles of Swype. However, Flow does have a couple of unique tricks up its sleeve. It features instant predictions, which keep on changing as you keep swiping. And it supports continuous typing, which SwiftKey calls “Flow through Space”. You can type entire sentences without lifting your finger, by simply gliding over the space key to begin a new word.

It’s hard to review SwiftKey after using it for less than six hours. However, one thing that’s amply clear is that SwiftKey still has a long way to go because it can match Swype’s accuracy. Gesture typing often leads to wrong guesses, and since the prediction engine tries to predict the next word, going back and correcting mistakes is annoying. I also missed Swype’s convenient single tap replace while using SwiftKey. SwiftKey Flow’s biggest challenge is that it is trying to tailor itself for both tap typing and gesture typing. Right now, its split personality is holding it back.

SwiftKey is hands down the best keyboard for Android devices out there. The keyboard has arguably the best prediction system out there, which makes typing on touchscreen slabs a breeze.

Today, the folks behind SwiftKey have unveiled what they have been working on for the last few months — SwiftKey Flow. Think of SwiftKey Flow as a combination of SwiftKey’s brilliant prediction system with the swyping power of Swype. The combination of these two should lead to a killer single hand typing experience on Android devices.

Here is a video of SwiftKey Flow in action -:

The best part of SwiftKey Flow is that, unlike Swype, users can either glide across the screen to enter a word or go the traditional tap an alphabet mode.

Sadly, SwiftKey Flow is not yet available for beta testing. The developers are still busy putting some final touches to the keyboard before they release a beta version to SwiftKey VIP members. Head over to SwiftKey’s website to register yourself to for an exclusive access to the beta version.

Over the last 24 hours, quite a few Android apps have been updated to fix compatibility issues with Jelly Bean. First and foremost, the all popular Swiftkey 3 received an updated that fixes some of the issues the keyboard has been having under Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. In addition to some bug fixes, the update fixes the broken prediction system in Jelly Bean and the predictions not working in certain cases.

Lastly, Google also rolled out a new version of Play Music on the Play Store. This new version brings with it a new widget, an updated UI for easier navigation, Now Playing queue and more. Below is the full change-log of the update -:

v4.3.606 * Now Playing queue that allows for queuing and reordering of currenty playing music. * New UI for navigation with transport controls on the action bar. * New large album art view on Recent. * Playlist art is now constructed from album art of songs in the playlist. * Now Playing widget has album art and support for thumbs up. * Harder, better, faster, stronger.

Yesterday, Swype released a new Beta of its keyboard with a new look, a better swiping and typing experience, better word prediction and more. Now, just a day after, TouchType has released a new major update of its popular keyboard, Swiftkey X. The update renames the keyboard to Swiftkey 3, and brings with it a new Ice Cream Sandwich like look, more themes, an improved prediction engine, and ‘Smart Space’.

Frankly, I had never liked the original Swiftkey X keyboard. The keyboard had an outstanding prediction system but the keyboard layout was nothing short of a disaster. However, I have been beta-testing Swiftkey 3 for the last two months, and I must say TouchType has done an outstanding work here. The layout of Swiftkey 3 is much, much better than Swiftkey X, and the prediction system is better than ever.

Below is the small change-log of the update that also includes some much-requested features from users -:

Further improved prediction algorithms for even more accurate next word suggestions.

Updated gestures for easier shortcuts.

Several bug fixes.

The Smart Space feature also works pretty well, but don’t expect it to completely eliminate the use of a spacebar for you, If you have not already, go ahead and buy the new version of Swiftkey now. To celebrate the release of the Swiftkey 3, TouchType has reduced the price of the keyboard from its usual $3.99 to $1.99.

If you own an Android handset, chances are you must be using Swiftkey X keyboard. The keyboard has awesome prediction abilities, and actually learns your typing style as time passes by. A couple of months ago, the Swiftkey team had released a new beta version of their keyboard known as Swiftkey 3.

The new version brought about a slightly redesigned layout, a better prediction system, a bigger space bar with an intelligent space bar prediction system that will totally eliminate the use of the space bar. While the keyboard does not really eliminate the use of the space bar, the new improved prediction system is definitely a noticeable improvement over Swiftkey X.

Swiftkey 3 is still in beta though, and a new beta of the keyboard was released yesterday. The new beta fixes some bugs, improves the prediction algorithms and provides a much better and consistent punctuation key behavior. There are some other bug-fixes and changes as well. Here is the full change-low of the beta 3 update -:

Interested readers can download the Swiftkey 3 beta for free from their VIP forums by signing up.

Two popular apps from Google – Maps and Translate – have also received an update. The new update for Google Maps brings with it reviews of popular places from your friends or experts, and Zagat scores and summaries for popular places. The update for Google Translate brings with it a Holo themed UI, an updated icon, and many “new text to speech languages.”